Optical

//ˈɒptɪkəl// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1
Any special effect requiring laboratory work on the film.
"It is a glossy film with gross, opulent opticals and little comic, or any, relief; it has the jaundiced complexion of an early 60s underground film, which it is; it is ponderous, Wagnerian, and feels about five hours long (its running time is about an hour)."

Adjective

1
Of or relating to sight; visual.
"Strabismus is an optical defect."
2
Designed to assist or enhance sight
"A microscope is an optical instrument."
3
Of or relating to optics.
"Refraction is an optical effect."
4
Of or relating to visible light.
"Optical telescopes don't work when it is cloudy."
5
Incorporating light-sensitive devices.
"An optical switch opens the door automatically."

Adjective

1
of or relating to or involving light or optics wordnet
2
relating to or using sight wordnet
3
of or relating to or resembling the eye wordnet

Synonyms

ocular ocular ophthalmic optic visual

Example

"The company faced a major interruption in business when a fire destroyed their archive of computer hard drives and optical discs."

Etymology

From optic + -al.

Related phrases

Raman optical activity extraordinary optical transmission fast blue optical transient floptical disk integrated optical circuit non-optical optical activity optical art optical astronomy optical axis optical bank optical black hole

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.